Blood commonly needs to be exsanguinated from an area before surgery. A common device to empty venous blood from limbs is an Esmarch band. The device was first introduced in 1870 by Dr. Esmarch, a German physician. The Esmarch band is wrapped around a limb to empty the blood from the limb. Many times the Esmarch band is tied around the end of the limb to act as a tourniquet to complete the exsanguination of the blood from the limb. When exsanguinating blood from the hand, the patient will hold onto something such as a ball of gauze. The hand is then wrapped with the Esmarch band and the gauze helps to keep the fingers spaced apart.
New varieties of devices have been created to exsanguinate blood from the limbs and extremities of a patient. One such device named the S-MART™ has been devised by OHK Medical Devices of Haifa, Israel. S-MART™ consists of a silicone ring, wrapped with a tubular elastic sleeve and a set of pull straps. It is placed on the end of a limb and the straps are pulled. The device rolls over the limbs exerting circumferential pressure draining the blood from the limb. In addition, the sterile sleeve unfolds off of the limb. The ring then creates an arterial block and it stays on for the duration of the operation.
The Esmarch band is relatively inexpensive, easily available, and many medical professionals are comfortable using the Esmarch band. The S-MART™ device is more expensive, not as easily manufactured or available, and has not been around for a long time in contrast to the Esmarch band. The Esmarch band, however, has many limitations, especially when wrapping a hand. First, beginning the wrapping of the band around the limb is awkward. Furthermore, a ball of gauze fails to position the fingers for effective exsanguination of blood.
Therefore, many needs exist in this area of technology.